Kosovo, a small majority-Muslim country in the Balkans, has signed up to United States President Donald Trump’s controversial Board of Peace and the planned International Stabilization Force for Gaza, after Israel gave its approval. The proposed force is, in theory, expected to help maintain security, support demilitarisation and train Palestinian police, though its mandate and composition remain unclear. For Kosovo, the decision has a particular resonance.
Its statehood and security depend on international support and NATO protection, as well as the right of a population under pressure from a stronger neighbour to decide its own future. It is now joining a Gaza framework whose legitimacy is contested by Palestinian actors and legal experts, and in which Israel retains decisive influence. Kosovo was an autonomous province within Serbia in the former Yugoslavia until Slobodan Milosevic stripped it of much of its self-government in 1989.
Repression and the political marginalisation of Kosovo Albanians culminated in the 1998-99 war, after the Kosovo Liberation Army launched a rebellion against Serbian and Yugoslav forces. Serbian and Yugoslav forces responded with killings, expulsions and mass displacement; more than 10,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed. The Hague tribunal later convicted senior Serbian and Yugoslav officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After NATO’s 78-day 1999 air campaign, Serbian and Yugoslav forces withdrew. NATO’s KFOR force, Kosovo’s principal external security guarantor, arrived that June. Nexhmedin Spahiu, a university professor and political analyst in Pristina, says Kosovo’s approach to Israel reflects a perceived obligation to Washington and, in his view, to the pro-Israel lobby in the US.
NATO and US intervention, Kosovo’s recognition, and the assistance received from the United States are consequences of the lobby’s “influence”, he said. With Serbia still refusing to recognise Kosovo and periodic tensions continuing, US backing and NATO deterrence remain central to Pristina’s security. Under the Washington agreement of September 2020, Kosovo committed to opening an embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel formally recognised Kosovo in February 2021, and Pristina opened its embassy there the following month, becoming the first majority-Muslim country to do so. Donika Emini, a research fellow at the University of Graz’s Centre for Southeast European Studies, said recognition was “unquestionably a major diplomatic and political achievement” for Kosovo. Israel’s recognition carried strategic value beyond the bilateral relationship.
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